dodgy PSU or GPU?

pandem0nium

pandem0nium

pandem0nium

Soldato
Joined
5 Dec 2010
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Solihull
Hi chaps, I hope you can help me with this one.

I have an issue whereby when I go to play Dirt 3, the computer just *poof* turns off. This also happens when running Heaven and afterburner OGL4 tests.
It runs the afterburner burn-in tests and the GPU-Z render test fine though.

Its a new PSU (see sig) so you'd think that would be the culprit. The motherboard reports all the voltages as fine though.

I've tried going back to previous versions of the drivers (12.3) with no luck.
I'm hoping it's just software related. Myu next step is to put the old PSU back in and try that, but yeah any suggestions would be appreciated :)
 
put the old psu in and see if it does the same.

i had a similar problem with my recent build where it would just shut off just like that.

i made sure all the connections were tight, and updated the bios and performed a clean install of windows too which sorted the problem.

run a virus scan, sometimes viruses or trojans can cause similar randomness.
 
ghummy said:
put the old psu in and see if it does the same.

i had a similar problem with my recent build where it would just shut off just like that.

i made sure all the connections were tight, and updated the bios and performed a clean install of windows too which sorted the problem.

run a virus scan, sometimes viruses or trojans can cause similar randomness.
Click to expand...

yeah clean install might be a good idea, it is quite a bit of a faf though! maybe I'll set up a dual boot to XP, and see if it runs fine on that before. I thought it might just be a software issue

There definitely shouldnt be any virusses and the like, but yeah tar, i think i'lll schedule a boot-time scan just in cases.
 
i mostly only seen that when its shorting out tho

suggestions from ghummy are good, try test one thing at a time if you want to find out for sure what it is tho

psu and cables would be my first
 
Hi

I had the exact same problem about 6 months ago. When playing any GPU intensive game my PC would shut down within a few minutes, but would happily run windows all day long.

How dusty is your case?

My problem was both my PSU and GPU were very badly fouled with dust.

I stripped my PC down, took off the plastic case over the GPU fan and cleaned it out thoroughly. I also opened up my PSU and cleaned that out. Put it all back together and hey presto - no more problems. It seemed my problem was the GPU was overheating.

I SHOULD MAKE IT VERY CLEAR THAT BOTH MY G-CARD AND PSU WERE OLD AND OUT OF WARRANTY - I WOULD NOT RECOMMEND WHAT I DID WITH NEWER COMPONENTS AS YOU WILL PROBABLY VOID THE WARRANTY!!

Most graphics cards have a thermal cut out where they will shut the PC down to prevent damage from over heating. You can turn this off in the BIOS usually, but I would not recommend it.

Cheers

Buff
 
Last edited:
Thanks for the suggestions guys.

I had a spring clean and blasted the gpu out with compressed air, as best I could anyway without removing the casing/heatsink.

I then tested again and it didn't really help. It managed to run the afterburner benchmarks normal and extreme, but the computer died shortly after starting heaven.

I then plugged in my old psu (cheap and cheerful powercool 750w) and its been quite happily running round heaven for quite a while now.

I think the best course of action is to just return the PSU and hope there's no hassle!

I'm thinking maybe just stick with the powercool until I need more power for another gpu, atleast it's 80+ bronze.

Cheers
 
id try make sure it wasnt just a loose cable or something catching but yeh try return it, sounds like you fixed it ><
 
yeah, I don't think it's loose cabling. It's semi-modular, and the 6pin plug for the gpu is connected permanently to the PSU.

It's a shame though, it was very good at giving me consistent voltages for overclocking the cpu.

it has all these features:
Over Voltage Protection
Over Temperature Protection
Over Current Protection
Over Power Protection
Short Circuit Protection

Which I guess might be kicking in and turning it off. Then it won't turn back on without unplugging the power cable and turning the swith on/off a few times. Oh wells.
 
Thankfully the chap was quite understanding and ok'd the refund.

Thinking about it, i could probably get around the problem by using a 2x molex to pcie adapter. It's not really worth it though as I've just bought it.

Cheers again guys
 
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